Every cause for hostility between the English and Scottish kings was removed for a time by the relinquishment of Edgar’s claims upon the English crown, and Malcolm was at liberty to turn his attention to internal policy, and to establish his authority, and secure it more firmly, over the northern provinces of his dominions. The deaths of Macbeth, and of his successor Lulach, had crushed without extinguishing the hopes of the rival family; but though their pretensions were again revived by Lulach’s son Malsnechtan, fortune continued adverse to the men of Moray, and a sanguinary and decisive victory, [Sidenote: A. D. 1077.] in which Malcolm is said to have “won the mother of Malsnechtan, all his best men, his treasures and his cattle,” confirmed the superiority of the king. This solitary passage in the Saxon chronicle is the only indication of the occurrence of any contest in the north of Scotland during the course of Malcolm’s reign; though probably the battle thus recorded by the chronicler of a different people, who adds that, “God’s justice was done upon Malsnechtan, for he was all forsworn,” effectually established the royal authority over the dominions of the hostile Mormaors. Malsnechtan, indeed, survived his overthrow to “die in peace,” a few years afterwards, [Sidenote: A. D. 1085.] when the title of “king of Moray,” conferred upon him by the Irish annalist, implies (if correct) a partial independence; but as there can be no doubt about the foundation of Mortlach before the date of his death, the surrounding territory must have been by this time annexed to the crown, and the influence of the Moray family must henceforth have been confined to the westward of the Spey.[166] [Sidenote: A. D. 1079.] Two years after his successes in the north Malcolm again crossed his southern frontiers with a hostile army; and, as at the time of this inroad William was contending in Normandy against his eldest son, it is doubtful whether the incursion was intended to effect a diversion in favour of Robert, always a warm friend of the Scottish monarch, or whether it was simply dictated, in the absence of the English king, by a wish to sweep the country to the Tyne. William was very shortly reconciled with his son, whom he dispatched with an army in the following autumn [Sidenote: A. D. 1080.] to make reprisals for the invasion of the Scots; but either from a want of ability, or from a secret feeling in favour of Malcolm, Robert retreated without effecting anything beyond a fruitless march to Falkirk; on his return southwards laying the foundations of a new castle on the Tyne--the first link in the chain of border fortresses destined to defend the English frontier from the ever ready attacks of the Scots--around which the future capital of Northumberland eventually grew into existence.[167] [Sidenote: A. D. 1087.]